Dooplaya Situation Update: Kawkareik, Kyainseikgyi and Kyonedoe townships, May to October 2014

This Situation Update describes events occurring in Kawkareik, Kyainseikgyi, and Kyonedoe townships, Dooplaya District between May and October 2014, including cases of theft and looting, shooting and arbitrary arrest and detention.

On May 7th 2014, Infantry Battalion (IB) #32 confiscated and looted villagers’ property in Kawkareik Township. Although villagers reported it to the IB #32 battalion commander, no action was taken against the perpetrators.

On October 9th 2014, 25-year-old Saw D--- from A--- village was shot at by soldiers from Tatmadaw Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) #283 while returning by motorcycle to his village from Kyaikdon town. He was not injured during the incident.

On October 12th 2014, a Tatmadaw soldier arrested two Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA) soldiers and one villager. The community does not know what has happened to the villager.

This photo was taken on October 14th 2014, in Kyaikdon Town, Kyainseikgyi Township. Saw D--- was shot at by Tatmadaw LIB #283 three times when returning to his village from Kyaikdon Town. His front and back lights and his back wheel spoke were broken due to the gunfire. [Photo: KHRG]

Footnotes

[1] KHRG trains community members in eastern Burma/Myanmar to document individual human rights abuses using a standardised reporting format; conduct interviews with other villagers; and write general updates on the situation in areas with which they are familiar. When writing situation updates, community members are encouraged to summarise recent events, raise issues that they consider to be important, and present their opinions or perspective on abuse and other local dynamics in their area.

[2] In order to increase the transparency of KHRG methodology and more directly communicate the experiences and perspectives of villagers in eastern Burma/Myanmar, KHRG aims to make all field information received available on the KHRG website once it has been processed and translated, subject only to security considerations. For additional reports categorised by Type, Issue, Location and Year, please see the Related Readings component following each report on KHRG’s Website.

[3] Infantry Battalion (Tatmadaw) comprised of 500 soldiers. However, most Infantry Battalions in the Tatmadaw are under-strength with less than 200 soldiers. Primarily for garrison duty but sometimes used in offensive operations.

[4] In Burmese, ‘betel nut’ and ‘betel leaf’ are referred to as konywet and konthih, as if they are from the same plant. The Burmese names are also commonly used by Karen language speakers. Betel nut is the seed from an area palm tree, areca catechu; "betel leaf" is the leaf of the piper betel vine, belonging to the Piperaceae family.

[5] Light Infantry Battalion (Tatmadaw) comprised of 500 soldiers. However, most Light Infantry Battalions in the Tatmadaw are under-strength with less than 200 soldiers. Primarily for offensive operations but sometimes used for garrison duties.

[6] The Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA), formerly the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, was formed in December 1994 and was originally a breakaway group from the KNU/KNLA that signed a ceasefire agreement with the Burma/Myanmar government and directly cooperated at times with Tatmadaw forces. The formation of the DKBA was led by monk U Thuzana with the help and support of the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), the name of the military government in Burma/Myanmar at that time. For more information on the formation of the DKBA, see "Inside the DKBA," KHRG, 1996. The DKBA now refers to a splinter group from those DKBA forces reformed as Tatmadaw Border Guard Forces, also remaining independent of the KNLA. As of April 2012, the DKBA changed its name from "Buddhist" to "Benevolent" to reflect its secularity.